Monday, June 9, 2008

Another Day in Decatur

indicator! (get it, har har!)

Oh, sorry, sometimes these little fits come over me.

Daniel and Sam are working on 'supplying the opposite' words in Building Thinking Skills. I got their Science curriculum for the coming year ordered today, as well as a 'remedial' pack of language skill builders. Yes, it is strange that kids with their awesome vocabularies and thinking skills haven't quite mastered written grammar skills. Punctuation, capitalization, identifying parts of speech. This is one area we will really work at over the summer.

I can totally relate to not understanding the mechanics of language. When I was in grade school, we happened to move from a district where grammar was taught in the latter half of the year, to one where it was taught in the beginning of the year. I moved at the perfect point to miss learning about nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Or maybe I was there and oblivious to it.

School was a terrible struggle for me all through elementary school. I was S-L-O-W. The teacher was ready to move on before I had absorbed what I needed to know... I was perpetually behind in my classwork. I remember my Dad promising me and my brothers a quarter for every "A" on our report cards. Semester after semester, the best I could do was a "B". I was trying as hard as I could. I was plenty smart... I just couldn't regurgitate the correct answers in a timely manner. (I remember being SHOCKED, when being asked to repeat the alphabet in first grade, to learn elemenno was four letters and not one. (L M N O)) Dad finally gave me a single quarter for a straight "B" report card. I was the LAST kid in the third grade to memorize the multiplication tables. I was not catching on that 3x3 is ALWAYS nine. Every time. Dad wanted my homework papers perfect. If I had to erase at all, he made me recopy the entire page.

I was in college (Jr. College) before I finally "got" nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. (This may be why I am so unconcerned that the boys haven't caught on to them yet.) Daniel and Sam are just now at the point where I was already the Meanest Mom In The World to the older kids. "Mom, How Do You Spell _____?" (Any of the older kids can tell you that no matter the word, my answer was the same: "D-I-C-T-I-O-N-A-R-Y"). My remedial packet will give them practice in basic grammar and language mechanics.*********************************************************I put in two job applications yesterday, via the internet, to companies in Ohio. I figure it is an exercise in futility anyway. Even if I am called and interviewed, Mr C (Who insisted I ought to be looking for work up there) will decided we aren't going. Yet. May I ask that you join us in prayer, if you are so inclined, that the door will be opened and we will have adequate finances to move there "and NOT live in poverty"?**********************************************************I can't think of anything additional to blog about at the moment. Have a great day!

2 comments:

LOL, loved that opening. I find it very interesting how different people process things. Some brains just have a unique way of looking and examining and it certainly doesn't have to do with intelligence. You are probably just a creative genius.